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Posts Tagged ‘The New York Times’

After the historic West Virginia election as well as a smashing Republican victory across the nation political junkies and policy wonks like me are pivoting to 2016. In my case it is the intrigue of the presidential contest and the adjustment both parties will need to make to attract voters.

“How the GOP Can Court the Working Class” and “Delusions of the Democrats” may provide the answer to policy adjustments. Beyond that Republicans focusing on the “working class” does not seem like a bad idea to me. I thought it was interesting to read about today’s Democratic Party being “scared of its own shadow.”

These came from the Sunday Review in the New York Times. For those interested below are links to read in detail what you might hear from the political parties over the next few months.

The significance of small states is the subject of a lengthy article in The New York Times. The focus is on their growing importance in the U.S. Senate. Throughout the article you can feel the message of unfairness to urban America. When a publication such as this New York newspaper gives this much attention to a subject it normally means just the beginning of a fight against rural states. As pointed out small state Senators are influencing the outcomes of filibusters, forming legislation and sharing the federal dollar. We don’t want to lose that influence.

We have written here from a rural perspective about preserving the Electoral College which is under attack and how the US Secretary of Agriculture has not fought for rural development for states like West Virginia. All of us Republicans, Democrats and Independents here and elsewhere in rural America must work together to prevent any movement that attacks the Constitution to do us harm.

News just broke that Lisa Jackson EPA Chief will leave the Obama administration. Is that good news for West Virginia? Who knows as I learned long ago be careful what you ask for! Here is the NY Times story.

It’s a cloudy morning in Elkins so I took a glance at various political newsletters and clipped some of the most interesting. My thanks to POLITICO, Daily Callers, Fox News, Huff Post & NY Times.

THE CAMPAIGN REACHED A NEW LOW YESTERDAY-

BIDEN in Danville, Va.: “Look at what they’re proposing. [Romney] said in the first 100 days, he’s going to let the big banks write their own rules – unchain Wall Street. They’re going to put y’all back in chains.” http://politi.co/OXGaxY

OBAMA in Oskaloosa, Iowa, referred to Seamus the dog while talking about Romney’s quip that windmills cannot be put on top of cars: ‘I don’t know if he’s actually tried that. I know he’s had other things on his car.’ http://politi.co/MZ6Uma

ROMNEY in Chillicothe, Ohio: “Mr. President, take your campaign of division and anger and hate back to Chicago and let us get about rebuilding and reuniting America.” Story from Reid Epstein wrapping up the day: http://politi.co/ROifo7. Here’s the full text of the governor’s speech: http://mi.tt/MZgHse.

GIULIANI SAYS BIDEN LACKS “MENTAL CAPACITY” TO BE VICE PRESIDENT: “I’ve never seen a vice president that has made as many mistakes, said as many stupid things,” former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said on CNBC’s Kudlow Report last night. “I mean, there’s a real fear if, God forbid, he ever had to be entrusted with the presidency, whether he really has the mental capacity to handle it. I mean, this guy just isn’t bright. He’s never been bright. He isn’t bright. And people think, ‘Well, he just talks a little too much.’ Actually, he’s just not very smart.” Watch: http://bit.ly/Oi5bFd.

THE MORNING AFTER

MARK HALPERIN, on “Morning Joe”: “Don’t want to overstate it but last night was a big, historical moment, I think, in this campaign. You had the vice president saying something he said in artfully. And now both campaigns are expressing not faux outrage – which is mostly what we see – but genuine outrage. I think the … former governor of Massachusetts was genuinely outraged by what Joe Biden said and about what he perceives as the president’s tactics.

“And I think, based on what happened last night, the president’s team is stunned that the president would be accused of engaging in a campaign of hate. Mitt Romney used the word ‘hate.’ I think he meant it. I think the president’s team was very stunned by it. And I think we’re either – today and the rest of this week – gonna escalate into nuclear war. Or I’d like to see some détente. This is not the kind of campaign I think either of these candidates wants. But it’s really escalated.”

WILLIE GEIST: “It has to be said that if Paul Ryan, the Republican candidate, said that to an African-American audience, there would be calls this morning for him to get out of the race, for Mitt Romney to withdraw from the race. There’s a double standard.”

WV GAME CHANGER

For some time I have thought the replacement of Biden with Hillary would have a huge impact on the WV political results in November. Let’s hope the Obama campaign is not taking advice from Sarah Palin.

PALIN SUGGESTS OBAMA REPLACE BIDEN WITH HILLARY: Reacting to Biden’s chains comment on Greta Van Susteren’s Fox show last night, Sarah Palin said: “There weren’t enough groans and boos when he said such a disgusting comment, really, especially to a demographic there that is — includes about 48 percent of the community being black Americans. Greta, if that’s not the nail in the coffin; really, the strategists there in the Obama campaign have got to look at a diplomatic way of replacing Joe Biden on the ticket with Hillary. And I don’t want to throw out that suggestion and have them actually accept the suggestion because then an Obama-Hillary Clinton ticket would have a darn good chance of winning. But really, Joe Biden really drags down that ticket.” Watch: http://bit.ly/ROHLJE.

BACK TO BIDEN

BIDEN DRIVES THE DAY – AP’s Matthew Daly in Danville, Va.: “Vice President Biden sparked a [told] an audience in southern Virginia that included hundreds of black voters that … the Republican ticket wanted to ‘unchain Wall Street’ by getting rid of regulations Obama signed into law two years ago. He added: ‘They’re going to put y’all back in chains.’… Obama’s campaign stood by Biden, saying the comments were a variation on remarks he makes often about the need to ‘unshackle’ the middle class. ..

“In a less-noticed gaffe Tuesday, Biden told the crowd he was confident their support would help the Obama-Biden ticket carry North Carolina. He was speaking in Virginia at the time. Still, Obama’s campaign sees Biden as one of its most valuable assets. The Scranton, Pa., native has a more natural appeal to working-class voters in battleground states like Ohio and Pennsylvania. He also has willingly embraced the traditional vice presidential attack-dog role, often launching the campaign’s most vigorous criticisms of Romney, and now Romney’s running mate, Paul Ryan.”

–At a rally last night in Wytheville, Biden said he meant “unshackled” instead of “unchained,” per Maggie Haberman: “I’m told that when I made that comment earlier today in Danville, Virginia, the Romney campaign put out a tweet. You know tweets these days? Put out a tweet, went on the airwaves saying, ‘Biden, he’s outrageous in saying that,’ I think I said instead of ‘unshackled,’ ‘unchained.’ ‘Outrageous to say that.’ That’s what we had. I’m using their own words. I got a message for them. If you want to know what’s outrageous, it’s their policies and the effects of their policies on middle class America. That’s what’s outrageous.’

IN 2008, OBAMA ATTACKED MCCAIN FOR CUTTING MEDICARE: ‘How would your golden years turn out under John McCain? His health care plan would cut Medicare by $800 billion — that means a 22 percent cut in benefits. Higher premiums and co-pays … after a lifetime of work, senior’s health care shouldn’t be a gamble. John McCain’s plan, it’s not the change we need.’ http://huff.to/MZiuxs

IN 2005, OBAMA ATTACKED BUSH FOR NOT TAKING ON MEDICARE. BuzzFeed’s Andrew Kaczynski unearths this 40-second clip of saying that George W. Bush should focus on Medicare instead of Social Security because it’s breaking down rapidly: http://bit.ly/QAW1la.

FINALLY

Why Moderates Should Like Paul Ryan

By Ross Douthat (NYT OP-ED Contributor)

The vice-presidential candidate is single-handedly responsible for saving the Republican Party from some of its own worst impulses. Read it here.

It is a quiet day along the Tygart River. I hope you are in a quiet spot. Here is some Sunday reading.

Obama’s real opponent: Europe

By Dana Milbank (The Washington Post)

Some think that Ohio will decide the presidential election. Others are watching Florida or North Carolina or Wisconsin.

But if you really want to know who will win the White House in November, you should ask the Europeans. They aren’t eligible to vote, but they may well cast the deciding ballot – and for President Obama, it’s looking grim. Read the full story here.

With friends like these…

By Kathleen Parker (The Washington Post)

For the past year, we’ve been relentlessly reminded that Republicans didn’t especially love their front-running president candidate.

Now it appears Obama is getting a taste of Romney’s stew. Democrats seem to be inching away from their man, undermining and diminishing the president with a thousand ting cuts. Not even his strongest alleged ally, Bill Clinton, can stay on message. Of course, Clinton has never really been Obama’s friend, despite his assertions to the contrary. Read the full story here.

Sure, This isn’t ’08, but There May Be More at Stake This Campaign

By Richard W. Stevenson (Political Memo, The New York Times)

Washington – The current presidential campaign is producing very few goose bumps, except perhaps among those who get all tingly when they view billionaire-financed attack ads. Read the full story here.

Poppy Chic

By Maureen Dowd (The New York Times)

I flew down to Houston last year to have lunch with George Herbert Walker Bush.

Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic Leader in the U. S. Senate suggested the ideas of the super committee that will be making big news this week. Reid was quoted in the Las Vegas Sun last week said “I have no regrets whatsoever about the suggestion that I made for a supper committee.”

DO NOT MISS READING the piece I clipped from POLITCO’S Playbook this morning. It provides a BEHIND THE SCENCES LOOK at the mess. You will see how Congress works or should I say does not work….. CLICK HERE.

From a news perspective I am including a front page story from The Washington Post with the headline “Hopes Fades for Debt Panel”. Read the full story here.

Some of us like to think big. We thought at the beginning of this debt crisis that it might be possible to reach a Grand Bargain. This deal would make a serious dent in the country’s awful debt problem. It would begin to reform entitlements. It would enough revenue to forestall ruinous cuts in domestic programs. Read the full story here.

The coming clash between President Obama and House Speaker John A. Boehner over the budget, entitlements and the nation’s debt is being driven by political calculations that will loom large in tense negotiations this spring and into the summer. Read the full story here.

As a former candidate for governor, I have more than a passing interest in the current campaign to replace Gov. Manchin until the 2012 election. Among candidates for the Democratic nomination (I leave it to my many Republican friends to sort out the Republican race). I’m most interested in what issues candidates present to the public. What a better way than to check each candidate’s website to see what pops out as the initial message. Read the full Op-Ed here.

The Next Question – How High and How Long?

By POLITICO’S Morning Score

The Republican pollsters at Public Opinion Strategies put together a chart tracking national security-related bumps dating back to Pearl Harbor and concluded: “On average, the President’s approval rating increases 13 points and a bump lasts an average of 22 weeks. That does not include the 105 week bump that President George W. Bush received after 9/11. The ‘bump’ on job approval shows the total increase in approval rating from prior to the event. The duration of the increase indicates the number of weeks until the President’s job approval rating returned to the prior level (so, for instance, the 35 point bump that George W. Bush got did not last the entire 105 weeks – the spike was the high, and it took 105 weeks to return to the pre-9/11 level.)” See the chart here: http://bit.ly/iRKHe8

Yes, Bin Laden’s Death Will help Obama, but for How Long?

By Nate Silver (The New York Times)

Obama bin Laden is dead.

I got the news on Twitter while in a taxi back from J. F. K. Airport. I told my cabbie, who was in disbelief at first, to turn the radio on. We took in the story together. I’m as patriotic as the next guy: it was a nice moment.

I suppose I’m supposed to weigh in on the electoral implications of this. It’s both very easy and difficult to write about. Read the full story here.